I was browsing through the "suggested friends" list on my personal Facebook page, and noticed a few of my client. It was strange, three of them in a row, but I didn't see any others. I'm not really sure why Facebook is recommending them, as nothing on my Facebook page is related to my hobby life (phone number, email addresses, mutual friends, ect). I keep my page mostly private, but this still really bothers me. Is it maybe because I log into my hobby email account on the same PC? Will I start to come up as a suggested friend for them? Is it because they've somehow viewed my page one way or another? As I said, I keep my page fairly private (you can see my name and my profile/cover picture), but I prefer to keep my hobby and personal life separate..... Very separate.... Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Hi Rachael: Sorry to hear that your personal information has been compromised by FB. I also learned this the hard way. FB will search everything, and I mean everything, on your phone and compare the data mined from your phone with information from other users of FB. There are some security "workarounds" you can avail yourself to protect yourself. I don't trust them enough to have anything more to do with them. Many other apps do similar things but FB is the most aggressive. If you are using a hobby phone make sure that you limit the social media apps and have no connection with your civi phone. FB will help itself to all of your contact info.

A provider I'd seen several times popped up as suggested friend. Not sure why, but might have been because I had FB on my phone and it may have seen her number. I promptly took FB off the phone.

If you use the same browser for everything, FB will search your browsing history, contacts, and cookies from other sites. That's how it finds out your which products to advertise (you know, when you've just searched flights to Miami on priceline, and then you see ads for Miami hotels pop up on Facebook?) and people you might know.  

to find matches in Facebook, then offering those matches up as potential friends for FB.  Had several providers pop up on a list like that on my FB feed.

"Will I start to come up as a suggested friend for them? "

If you're on FB and using the same computer for both your lives it's no surprise you're seeing these types of links. As someone else noted FB is one of the ultimate virtual stalkers in the world. I cancelled my subscription to FB years ago and I still have to put up with them tracking me on the internet and I'm 100% sure they will link the commercial tracking they do without your knowledge or permission (at least not explicit permission) with their tracking you as a subscriber. It's going to get even worse as they get into the e-com payment game (and they are).

I'll second TOR but please make sure you (ed. - not necessary the poster recommending TOR but the general reader who goes and gets TOR) read their "TOR is not all you need..." link and occasionally go back and reread it to remind yourself not to get into bad habits. Basically the reality of today's world is if you care about your privacy it's up to you to do the work and pay the cost (in time and effort and sometimes out of pocket) to keep the nosy out.

-- Modified on 1/21/2017 12:25:42 PM

I will start making the appropriate changes to ensure privacy for both myself and my clients and their associates.

Privacy is a big issue on FB.  If you reply to a post that is set to "public", for example, you've now exposed some elements of your profile to the general public, even if you have your the privacy setting for your own account set to the max.

The latest version of Opera also includes free VPN which I've been using just for the hobby.  I also use other browsers the same way that you described or I make sure that all cookies, cache, etc. are all cleared before using a particular browser.

For several years, I have been posting this warning:  
                         AVOID SOCIAL MEDIA LIKE THE PLAGUE THAT IT IS!

rather just be a "face-fuck" friend.  That's how to keep them separate.  

I deliberately use separate emails & phones to frustrate the trackers as much as possible... I use CCleaner to erase cookies & such before & after using adult sites.  It frustrates the adware on FB...  reduces that sort of email spam.  I just hated when I looked at an item on say Amazon, decided I didn't want it...  then on FB & Yahoo ads for  the exact item I didn't want keep coming up...  P*** on them!  

GPS to pinpoint people on Facebook who are in close proximity!!
I had a quick drink next to a Chinese tour guide in a hotel bar in Salt Lake City once and she popped up as a suggested friend later that day even though we'd not even exchanged names, let alone any other contact details!!

-Never, NEVER store emails and contacts of clients on your personal phone (Facebook, instagram, twitter, snapchat and many more WOULD get that information on the contacts on your personal account).  

...I keep my electronic footprint as small and light as possible. Thus, NO social media -- I've had philosophical issues with FB from the beginning and refused to participate. All the other SM platforms are also verboten in my world and I use private browsing mode, clear history 3-4x a day, etc.

Hi There

I have the "luxury" of advanced years and a safe career to shield me from the pernicious effects of not being on social media, that is, the fact that a young person going out into the world who is not on FB or some other social media is going to be black-balled by many employers if they do not have some SM presence.

through the story about the Borg:  A race where each member was always connected to each other telepathically:

This is true, I read a report on all the information that FB has on their clients and you name it they either have it or access to it. This is the very reason I don't and wont ever have a FB page. It was shocking at the amount of personal info they can get on someone using their site

BTW, in bringing up the topic of the Borg, you could've gone Jeri Ryan but you went with Patrick instead. What's up with that?

Does that make Mark Zuckerberg Locates of FB?

Good suggestions.

then things would not be so futile.

LoL, right!? If she was assimilating, I wouldn't resist one bit!!

I just read this thread on a search because I had the same issue happened to me with Facebook. Facebook suggested a lady I visited as a potential friend. We spent 90 minutes in the same room really was the only connection.